We spent President's Day visting Mass MoCA, the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. This is a fairly new museum in a converted factory in northwestern Massachusetts. It's not a bad museum if you happen to be in the Berkshires, but definitely not worth the 3+ hour drive from Boston, especially with two kids in the car! The best part was the minestrone soup in the cafeteria.
Jim on 02.20.06 @ 07:40 PM ET [link]
I took the Amtrak Acela Express train from Boston to Washington D.C. for a business trip. Very roomy and comfortable, compared with an airliner. The Acela is the U.S answer to "high speed rail", but just barely. The technical top speed of the train is 150 mph, but there are only 18 miles of track rated for that speed. The rest of the track is either too old or in too congested an area to hit those speeds. There were huge areas where we seemed to be going less than 40 mph. Total trip time to D.C: a little over six hours. Not nearly as cool as the French TGV, which I rode in several years ago, but still an enjoyable ride.
I find the most interesting parts of any train ride is the approach into a city. Boston, Philly, Baltimore, Washington, all show their seedy underbellies. It's as if you took a knife and sliced down the coastline through the major population centers, then took a close look at the cross section.
Jim on 02.08.06 @ 08:57 PM ET [link]
Email: jim@jimandbarb.DELETETHISPART.net
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